Abstract: The departure audit of natural resource assets for leading officials has a positive effect on pollution control, however, whether it has a carbon reduction effect remains to be verified. Taking the data from the prefecture level cities from 2012 to 2019 as samples, this paper examines the impact of natural resource asset retirement audits for leading officials on regional carbon emissions with a multi-phase double difference model. The findings show that off-office auditing of natural resource assets for leading cadres can significantly suppress regional carbon emissions. The mechanism analysis shows that the departure audit of natural resource assets for leading cadres can promote green technology progress and industrial structure upgrading, thereby suppressing regional carbon emissions. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that in the regions with higher industrial carbon emissions, the regions with less abundant carbon sink resources, and the regions with higher levels of local government attention, the carbon emission reduction effect of the natural resource asset off-office audits for leaders is more significant. The extensive analysis shows that carbon market pilot projects can enhance the carbon emission reduction effect of off-office audits; the stronger the public’s awareness of green and low-carbon, the more effective it is to enhance the carbon reduction effect of off-office audits. To this end, it is necessary to strengthen the efforts of the off-office audit in the industrial sector,to guide enterprises to practice green and low-carbon production and advocate for the public to follow green and low-carbon living and consumption, and form a good pattern of coordinated governance of carbon emissions by the government, enterprises, and the public.

Key words: off-office audit of natural resource assets for leading officials, carbon reduction effect, carbon sink resources, pilot carbon market